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Coca-Cola launched its first ever alcoholic drink today in Japan -- a fizzy, lemon-flavoured concoction laced with spirits that seek to capitalise on the growing popularity of "chuhai" alcopops enjoyed especially by young women. Although the US firm dabbled in the wine business in the 1970s, the experiment in Japan is "unique" in the company's 125-year history, said Coca-Cola Japan president Jorge Garduno. From today, three new "Lemon-Do" drinks -- containing three, five and seven percent alcohol -- will be available in the southern Kyushu region of Japan. A 350-millilitre can will set you back 150 yen ($1.40). "This is a pilot project in the region which has a sizable market," Masaki Iida, spokesman for Coca-Cola's Japanese unit, told AFP. He declined to reveal the exact spirit in the drink, as the recipe is a closely guarded secret. Coca Cola product developers got the idea after visiting Japanese-style "iz...

Many American children consume more than half of their fruit as juice, and the American Academy of  Pediatrics  has issued new guidelines clarifying its stance on that substitution: For most kids, it’s a bad thing. The new guidelines aren’t just intended to persuade pediatricians to talk to parents about the disadvantages of the ubiquitous juice box. They also take aim at the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are the basis for the nutritional guidelines in the Department of Agriculture’s School Lunch Program — guidelines that allow for the replacement of half of the recommended daily servings of fruits with 100 percent fruit juice, a substitution that has been enthusiastically embraced by the food and beverage industry and school lunch programs nationwide. Language in the Dietary Guidelines points back to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ earlier recommendations with respect to fruit juice (last updated in 2001), which could best be describ...